'No rush' to sign Heron Gate eviction notices, community advocate says

Community members and housing advocates will be door-knocking and handing out information Sunday to the hundreds of tenants facing eviction in Ottawa's Heron Gate neighbourhood.

Timbercreek has announced plans to demolish 105 low-rent townhomes, along the east-west extension of Baycrest Drive to Sandalwood Drive, because of high maintenance costs.

Tenants have said that they've struggled for decades to get necessary repairs. On Monday, they began receiving notices that they would be evicted by September.

• Facing eviction, Heron Gate tenants have nowhere to go

At a community meeting Saturday at the Heron Gate Community Centre, a group of volunteers and a handful of tenants came together to talk strategy and plan today's canvassing in the neighbourhood.

'No rush' to sign notice

"We want to reach out right now, as quickly as we can," said Clinton Cowan, the president of the Alta Vista Community Association. 

We need to have a community-to-Timbercreek conversation about the transition first.- Clinton Cowan, Alta Vista Community Association

The main message they'll be delivering to tenants, Cowan said, is that they need to know their legal rights.

"There's no rush or obligation for them to sign back their eviction notice," said Cowan, noting that the tenants have to give their consent before Timbercreek can march ahead with its plan.

A Timbercreek spokesperson notes that the legal notices terminating the leases between the company and tenants have not been issued yet and don't require the tenants consent.

Still, Cowan hopes to slow down the current process before tenants are forced to move.

"We need to have a community-to-Timbercreek conversation about the transition first," he added. 

Timbercreek offers financial help

Timbercreek has offered evicted tenants four months' notice and some financial help in the amount of three months' rent, plus a $1,500 moving allowance.

It's also offering what's being called a "relocation consultant."

But finding affordable housing options will be difficult, advocates warn, with nearly 11,000 households on a waiting list for subsidized housing, according to a recent city report.

Cowan estimated that more than 500 people will be affected by the eviction notices, since most of the townhomes house low-income, multi-generational families — largely made up of new Canadians — who share the three-and-four-bedroom spaces.

Language has proven a barrier to helping families understand their rights, Cowan said. That's left many afraid to ask the landlord for simple repairs, out of fear they'd receive the long-threatened eviction notices.

'Very stressful'

One woman said she lives with nine children and a grandchild in her home and wasn't sure how they'd find another suitable place for the $1,500 per month in rent she currently pays.

"This is very stressful," said the woman, who refused to give her name because of fears of reprisal from her landlord.

"Me and my neighbours haven't slept much since the [eviction] papers showed up." 

For some of the tenants, this is their second eviction, having only recently moved from a Timbercreek townhome that was demolished on the next block over in 2015.

That redevelopment project, now underway, will feature three six-story buildings. It was described in a recent real estate publication as "a premium, active adult-oriented rental community meant to offer resort-style living."

It offers "a completely different product than what used to exist on this site," said Timbercreek's senior vice-president of development, Greg Rogers, in the article for Real Estate News Exchange.

"If this goes well, we'll look at other options [for improvement]," he said.